Halstead, Mary Ann

ORAL HISTORY OF MARY ANN HALSTEAD
Interviewed by Don Hunnicutt
Filmed by BBB Communications, LLC.
October 25, 2012
MR. HUNNICUTT: This interview has been scheduled through the Center of Oak Ridge Oral History. The date is October 25, 2012. I am Don Hunnicutt in the home of Mrs. Mary Ann Halstead, 131 Indian Lane, Oak Ridge, Tennessee. May I call you Mary Ann?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Please state your full name, your place of birth, and the date of your birth.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Mary Ann Wood Halstead. I was born December 30, 1931, in Cleveland, Tennessee.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Would you recall your father’s name and his birth place.
MRS. HALSTEAD: John Wood was his father—my father’s name. Oh God, he’s been dead a while. I don’t know.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall where he was born?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Cleveland.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Cleveland, Tennessee.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How about your mother’s name, maiden name, and where was she born?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Her maiden name, she was Ruby Louise Clemmons, and she was born in the same place.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Ok. Do you recall how they met?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes, my father worked the Hardwick Woolen Mills in Cleveland, and evidently Mother was a secretary.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, your father worked at a wind mill?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Woolen.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Woolen Mill.
MRS. HALSTEAD: A very famous Woolen Mill, even now.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall the name of that?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Hardwick.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Hardwick. How about your mother? Did she work?
MRS. HALSTEAD: In the office.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, they met there and later got married?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you have any brothers and sisters?
MRS. HALSTEAD: One sister.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And her name?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Joan.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about your father? Do you know or recall anything about his school history?
MRS. HALSTEAD: His what history?
MR. HUNNICUTT: School history. What schools he might have went. Did he graduate from high school? Do you recall?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I’m sure he graduated from high school. He was an excellent musician. He had his own bandstand. He played the organ at the church.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How about your mother? Do you recall her school history?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Just a little petite thing is all I can remember. (Laughter) She was about maybe 15 or 14 years older than me, you know. She and I were close and very close because she was so young.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did your father work at the—do you recall how long he worked at the woolen mill?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, but it was during the Depression in 1931. Of course, the middle of the Depression, wasn’t it? Somewhere in there. My mother’s sister lived close to her in Cleveland, and she and her husband moved up here to Oak Ridge, and her husband called my father and said, “You need to come because the jobs are good, and the money is excellent”, and he did.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How old were you when you came with your family to Oak Ridge?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I came out of the seventh grade in Cleveland, so you could figure young teen, I guess, up to the eighth grade.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, what type of job did your father have when he came to Oak Ridge?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Oh Lord. He worked somewhere down here at the plant, but he also played the organ at the Mayflower, and he played the organ at the church.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall where you first lived when you came to Oak Ridge?
MRS. HALSTEAD: On Wakefield Road.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What type of house was that?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Well, I guess, we had family in front and family in back, whatever you want to call that. A duplex, I guess. Is that what they were called?
MR. HUNNICUTT: A TDU duplex?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Describe how the house inside looked like. Do you recall how it looked, how many bedrooms it had?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Two.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you share a bedroom with--
MRS. HALSTEAD: With my sister.
MR. HUNNICUTT: -- your sister?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Who was 11 years younger, which didn’t work out just really well. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: What was some of the problems that you two had?
MRS. HALSTEAD: She just wanted to get into my stuff.
MR. HUNNICUTT: I understand. So, you started the eighth grade in the Oak Ridge school system?
MRS. HALSTEAD: At Highland View, and I walked, of course. There is an excellent bus schedule here, but I walked up to Highland View. From Wakefield Road to Highland View School is not very far, but they roofed that school over our head when we were in there as we were in there as students, so it was just going up.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, the school was in the process--
MRS. HALSTEAD: Of being built.
MR. HUNNICUTT: -- of being built while you attended. Do you remember some of your teachers’ names?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you like school?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What was the difference, that you can recall, between going to Highland View School than the school you attended in Cleveland through the seventh grade?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Well, it was exciting. I mean, how exciting can it be to have a school built around you while you’re in there? (Laughter) I do remember this, that even coming, even only being 10-years-old I had to wear a badge. Everybody that came into this city wore a badge, and it was full of military—soldiers everywhere. I always told everybody my mother put me on a short leash. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you have a lot of kids in your school class as well?
MRS. HALSTEAD: There wasn’t a lot of us, I don’t think. I don’t remember it being crowded.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about lunchtime? Did you take a lunch to school with you?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I did.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall some of the subjects you took in school?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, whatever we had. There was no choice when you were in grammar school. You had, you took what they had you take.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Reading, writing, and arithmetic?
MRS. HALSTEAD: That’s exactly.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What was the dress code? What kind of clothes did you wear when you went to school?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Skirts and sweaters, I think, just like everybody else.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Was that the same dress you had when you lived in Cleveland?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, when your parents came to Oak Ridge, how did they get here? By car?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, they didn’t have a car. I’d have to think about that.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Ok. Maybe it will come to you later on. So, your mother, father, you, and your sister, is that the total number in the family that came to Oak Ridge?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did your mother ever work while she was here in Oak Ridge?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes, she worked at Conley E. Morris at the dress shop.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Where was that located?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Down here in Oak Ridge at the shopping mall. There was Conley E Morris, and then there was Kimball’s Jewelers, and the whole thing has changed now.
MR. HUNNICUTT: That’s the Downtown shopping area that they used to have?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall in your first home that you lived in what type of heat you had in the home? Do you recall whether it was coal heat?
MRS. HALSTEAD: It was, yes, it was the big old furnace, I guess it was, sitting in the living room, potbellied stove is what it was, and it was coal. There was a coal bin outside, and we carried the coal, and in the summer, Mother made Daddy dismantle that thing and take it out of the house so she had more room in the living room. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, you and your sister shared a bedroom.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall what your—how your mother washed your clothes? Did she have a --
MRS. HALSTEAD: She had a ringer washer, you know.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And I suspect she hung the clothes outside on the clothes line?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall neighbors talking to each other at the clothes line in those days?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yeah, oh yeah.
MR. HUNNICUTT: That was the point of conversation?
MRS. HALSTEAD: It was. Yes, it was.
MR. HUNNICUTT: When you went from Highland View School, what was the next school you attended?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Jefferson Junior High, which is Robertsville now—right down here.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Jefferson Junior High was located where Robertsville Junior High School is today?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh, uh-huh.
MR. HUNNICUTT: On Robertsville Road?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What do you remember about that school? Was it old, new?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Oh, yeah, it was fairly new. I don’t remember a whole lot about junior high. I was just there two years because then I went to high school.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And where was the high school at that time?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Up at Jackson Square up on the hill.
MR. HUNNICUTT: On the hill. So, when you went to the high school---let’s back up a minute. When you went to junior high at Jefferson, did you walk to school?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about lunches? Did you take your lunch to school with you?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yeah.
MR. HUNNICUTT: You eat in the cafeteria?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, I took my lunch.
MR. HUNNICUTT: The dress code, I guess, was the same --
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yep.
MR. HUNNICUTT: -- as before? When you were in high school, do you recall what classes you took, any special classes?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I was in the band.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What instrument did you play?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Bell lyre, bells, lyre—L-Y-R-E, and my father wrote the marching song for the Oak Ridge High School, and they still use it.
MR. HUNNICUTT: That’s good.
MRS. HALSTEAD: And he played the organ at the Mayflower Grill.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you remember your music teacher in the high school?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Scarborough, Prof. Scarborough.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about activities, clubs, or things of that nature? Did you belong to any clubs during the high school days?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, I don’t think so.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you attend --
MRS. HALSTEAD: Your life revolved around the bus schedule. They only ran so far and so long, and at certain times, and you had to get out of school and get down the steps and get to where your bus was.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, you rode the bus back and forth to --
MRS. HALSTEAD: Oh, yeah.
MR. HUNNICUTT: -- when you went to high school?
MRS. HALSTEAD: We didn’t have a car.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How did your dad get to work if you didn’t have a car?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Well, he had a car pool. He rode with someone.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Recalling the type of people who were here in those days, what kind of people—can you describe what kind of people they were, I mean?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Army, all of them in khaki. It seems like a mass of khaki, but they were from everywhere, north, south, east, and west.
MR. HUNNICUTT: It seems like everybody blended in?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes. Yes, the people on the top next to us on the left, I don’t know where they came from. The gentleman down below us, on the right, had a Model-T Ford he had to crank, but he had the only car in the whole neighborhood. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: And were you still living on Wakefield?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: In the same house?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What kind of fun activities did you do in the summer time after school was out?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, I came home.
MR. HUNNICUTT: No, I mean after school was out in the summer.
MRS. HALSTEAD: In the summer?
MR. HUNNICUTT: Yes.
MRS. HALSTEAD: I guess I went down to the big old swimming pool down here, although I never did learn to swim. Roller skating, my mother and I both roller skated.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Where was the roller rink located?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Right down here at Jefferson. My mother and father won a lot of trophies roller skating.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What do you remember about the roller rink? Describe what you remember.
MRS. HALSTEAD: I loved it. This one down here, I wish we still had it. It had that wooden, wonderful wooden floor, and it was just a good place to be because you had a lot of people watching over you, and it was just a—no roughness going on or anything.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you know how to skate before you ever went roller skating?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I learned how to skate in Cleveland, but I learned how to walk the corners and things like that down here. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: What is walking the corners?
MRS. HALSTEAD: When you go around a corner you don’t just skoosh, skoosh, skoosh. You go one foot over the other.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So you spent a lot of time at the roller rink?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Whenever my momma would let me, yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Was your momma strict on you?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes. She kept me on a very short leash. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about dances, did you attend any dances that—they had dances throughout the city, I think, in those times.
MRS. HALSTEAD: No.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you ever play any sports?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How about playgrounds, did you visit the playgrounds?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes, there is a playground in every area, you know. The Army set it up that way. There’s a playground right behind me.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Each school had a playground, if I remember right?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes, and I had a sister, you have to remember, 13 years younger. I did a lot of babysitting.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you have any special girl friends that you kind of hung out with?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yeah, I did.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What kind of activities did you remember doing?
MRS. HALSTEAD: We didn’t get to see each other very much because none of us had the transportation. We saw each other in high school, but no, we didn’t get to see each other very much. Besides that, I had to iron the baby’s diapers and all that sort of thing. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: Big sister work?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh, big sister work.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you remember the boardwalks around the town?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Kind of describe what the boardwalks looked like.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Well, the ones I had to, the one I went to from Wakefield you had to go down into the gully and then get onto it and go down to Hillside, and the roads were just—they hadn’t been paved or anything. I lost a galoshe in the road going up to school at Highland View that I never found. I guess it’s still up there somewhere. I don’t know. (Laughter) It sucked it right off my foot.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, there as a lot of mud throughout the city?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Oh, Lordy was there ever.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about the weather? Do you remember was it harsh winter or snows, or do you recall how the weather was in those days?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, I don’t remember. As a teenager I don’t think the weather even entered into my mind.
MR. HUNNICUTT: When your mother went shopping, how did she go shopping? How did she get there?
MRS. HALSTEAD: She had to bum a ride, or she had to take a bus.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you go shopping with her?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, I stayed home and watched my baby sister.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall where she might have did all of her grocery shopping?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, I guess probably as close to home as she could get, probably up at Hilltop and places like that.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall going any place with your mother shopping anywhere and standing in line?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, but they used to be lines for something, but I don’t remember what it was.
MR. HUNNICUTT: I’ve been told there were lines for anything that you wanted.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Stocking, for one thing, you know I think, but no, I don’t really because, like I said, I ended up doing the house work and babysitting, and I didn’t do just a whole lot of that.
MR. HUNNICUTT: When you were going to high school, of course Jackson Square at that time --
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: -- was the main shopping area.
MRS. HALSTEAD: You walked up those big steps.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Were the steps, when you were going to the high school, made out of wood, or do you recall?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes, yes, but they are concrete now, but yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you remember any times that you stopped at any stores in Jackson Square during the time you were in high school?
MRS. HALSTEAD: We always stopped at that, what was a, drug store. I don’t know what it is now. I don’t know whether it still is or not.
MR. HUNNICUTT: That was William’s Drug Store?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yep. We got a bite, like a cookie and something like that to last me through the day.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you get off the bus down in front of the post office and have to walk up --
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh.
MR. HUNNICUTT: -- the hill?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And that’s where you caught the bus.
MRS. HALSTEAD: At the post—yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall what color the school buses were?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Nope.
MR. HUNNICUTT: They used to be red for many years. I didn’t know whether that was the color.
MRS. HALSTEAD: (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, if your mom or dad needed to go somewhere in the city they had to ask, get a ride from someone, or use the bus?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Catch the bus, um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did your ride the buses?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Other than going to school? Did you do any bus riding throughout the city other than going to school?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I’d have to think about that. I don’t know where I’d be going or what I would be going for. Mostly I walked.
MR. HUNNICUTT: You were referring to badges.
MRS. HALSTEAD: I had a badge, yes, at 10-years-old.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And your picture was on the badge and your name? Did you have a number as well?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I’m sure I did, but I don’t know what it was.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, what was the reason you had to have a badge? Do you recall?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Everybody that came in through those gates, we were the city behind the fence, if you will remember, had to have a badge. It didn’t matter how old they were.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, if you got up in the morning and just going outside to play, did you have to wear the badge?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, I didn’t.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Were you supposed to?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, I don’t reckon. I mean, I was right there at my house, you know.
MR. HUNNICUTT: But if you went to school, did you wear your badge?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, I probably didn’t wear my badge very much at all except if I was going Downtown or somewhere. I don’t think they ever stopped you very much to see. Coming in and out is when they got, you know, out the gates is when they got you.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you have anyone from your family outside of Oak Ridge come and visit you that you remember?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes, my grandmother.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did she have to have a pass to get in, in those days?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Probably. I don’t remember that. I just remember she came and brought me Easter presents and Christmas presents.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Talking about the gates, there were gates around the city to keep the people out they didn’t want in.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall traveling in and out of the gates at any time?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Any time that you went anywhere that you traveled you had to go in and out of the gates, but I didn’t travel much because we didn’t have a car, you know.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What did you do after you graduated from high school?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Went into nurses training.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And where was that?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Baptist Hospital in Knoxville.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How did you get over to Baptist and back?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Over Greyhound bus.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How long was your nurse's training?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Three years.
MR. HUNNICUTT: After you graduated from nurses training, what did you do then?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Came back to Oak Ridge and worked in the operating room here at the hospital.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall what year that was?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Oh, Lord, no, I don’t.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Was that your first job at the hospital in the operating room?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I loved it. That’s the only place I ever worked.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How long did you work with the hospital?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Oh, goodness, I worked, I don’t know—I was dating, I got married. I guess I got married to my husband, and I was still working, which drove him nuts because he never knew when I was going to get called out. I worked until Dr. Dana Nance told me that I couldn’t work anymore because I had got, I was pregnant, but then he said, “You’re so big you can’t get close enough to the table to hand the instruments. You’re going to have to retire.” I quit.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Let me back up a minute and ask you another question. Do you remember when the news was announced about the dropping of the bomb on Japan?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Where were you when that happened? Do you recall?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, but I recall there was quite a bit of panic. There was a lot of people wanting out of here.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Why do you think that was the case?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I don’t know. I think they thought if—they didn’t know what we were doing here until then. They had no idea we were building an atomic bomb, you know. I think they panicked and said, “Oh, my God, let’s get away from here.”
MR. HUNNICUTT: Then later on, do you remember opening the gates to the city?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes. I marched in that parade.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Tell me a little bit about the events of the parade.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Hot, oh, it was so hot. I was carrying the bell lyre. Do you know what I’m talking about? A huge, big instrument, marching down through there, Rod Cameron on his horse in front of us, leaving great piles here and there. The band couldn’t keep a straight line. There was no way you could keep a straight line. If you just didn’t step in it you were lucky. It was interesting. I’ll just put it that way.
MR. HUNNICUTT: This was the Oak Ridge High School band?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh.
MR. HUNNICUTT: That was a pretty good long march from where the Civic Center is today --
MRS. HALSTEAD: It surely was.
MR. HUNNICUTT: -- through Jackson Square.
MRS. HALSTEAD: And it was hotter than the hinges on the gate. I’m telling you.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, Rod Cameron, he was a western movie star?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh, and I can’t remember who the woman was. It was another pretty big star.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Marie McDonald?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: They used to call her Marie “the Body” McDonald.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yeah, uh-huh.
MR. HUNNICUTT: There was other movie stars here as well, Adolph Menjou. Do you remember him?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And Lee Bowman --
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh.
MR. HUNNICUTT: -- rode in cars.
MRS. HALSTEAD: I was just interested in getting down the street.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now, did the Oak Ridge High School band also go to Elza Gate at the official gate opening?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you march all the way out there?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, no, no we went by bus.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And then you were taken back down to the starting point of the parade by bus?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yeah, there was too many big instruments to be trying to walk it.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you see the ribbon cutting or explosion at the gate opening ceremony?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What did you think about that?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I thought it was pretty dramatic.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Quite a few people there?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you stay long enough to witness the gate opening and the cars and the people outside waiting to come through?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No.
MR. HUNNICUTT: After you marched in the parade, what did you do then?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Went home.
MR. HUNNICUTT: You didn’t attend any other events throughout the city?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, no I didn’t.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Let’s talk about dating a little bit when you were in high school, and your mother had a close rein on you, how did you meet—well, your first date for example—where did you go?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Movies, to the movies.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Indoor theater?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And other places? Where else did you go on your dates?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Well, he didn’t have a car, and I didn’t have a car. We didn’t go very far.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you ride the bus there?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Just meet and ride the bus?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Was the movie theaters—Where were they located that you attended?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I don’t know. I thought they were at Grove Center, and there was one where the Playhouse is now.
MR. HUNNICUTT: The Center Theater in Jackson Square?
MRS. HALSTEAD: There was one where Big Ed’s is down there.
MR. HUNNICUTT: The Ridge Theater, and there was a Jefferson Theater down at Jefferson as well?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yeah.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, you met your husband. How did you meet your husband?
MRS. HALSTEAD: A blind date.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Blind date. Were you out of high school when you met him?
MRS. HALSTEAD: It wasn’t exactly a blind date. I’ll back up a minute. I was working as head nurse on the floor, the surgical floor. He was visiting friends down the hallway and looked up and saw me sitting at the desk and sent one of the girls up there to ask if I would come back there and talk to them, and he asked me for a date.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, what did your husband do at the time?
MRS. HALSTEAD: He was an engineer.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And he just happened to be in the hospital and saw you at that time?
MRS. HALSTEAD: He was visiting a friend.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, what are some of the places and things that you did when you dated your husband or future husband?
MRS. HALSTEAD: We went wherever we could, but you have to remember that if you’re on call—I would be sitting in a theater, and across the bottom of the screen it would say, “Ms. Halstead, please come back to surgery.” We’d have to get up and go leave, so.
MR. HUNNICUTT: That’s an interesting fact. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that before.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yeah, that’s exactly what happened, but you can’t just stay home when you’re on call because we took a lot of calls, and so I just got bucked up and went back to surgery.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, when were you married, the date and the place?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Oh, Lordy. He’s been gone a while. We were married in Rossville, Georgia. We went off with a couple of our friends and got married because we didn’t either one have enough money to have any kind of a wedding, so we just eloped and went off and got married.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Where was your first house you lived in?
MRS. HALSTEAD: That my husband and I lived in?
MR. HUNNICUTT: Yes.
MRS. HALSTEAD: We lived over in those brick apartments.
MR. HUNNICUTT: In the Woodland area?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh, right in there.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How long did you live in those?
MRS. HALSTEAD: You are spraining my brain. We moved from there out to West Village. I don’t know. I can’t remember.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Ok. Well, kind of describe the brick apartment that you lived in inside. What was it like?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Noisy. (Laughter) There was a lot of people in those brick apartments from everywhere. We had our first child there. We were on the ground floor, which was lucky. I didn’t have to climb the steps, and it was close within walking distance of, of course, one of the shopping centers was right there. My husband did have a car.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, the Downtown shopping center was there when you --
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh.
MR. HUNNICUTT: -- lived there, so they built that in 1955, so. What type work did your husband do?
MRS. HALSTEAD: He was a mechanical engineer at the plant.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall which plant he worked at?
MRS. HALSTEAD: K-25.
MR. HUNNICUTT: When you were growing up and Oak Ridge was a secret, did you recall anyone telling about what was going on here or what they did until they dropped the bomb --
MRS. HALSTEAD: No.
MR. HUNNICUTT: -- and the news came out?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Absolutely not.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did anybody ask questions about what was going on? Do you recall?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, but then at my age they wouldn’t be talking to a 13-year-old about that anyway, or 14-year-old.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Tell me about your first child. What was, was it a he or she?
MRS. HALSTEAD: She. She just called me from France this morning.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And she was born in Oak Ridge Hospital?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall the date?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, I’d have to go get her baby book. I do not recall the date. I just remember that—no, I don’t remember much about it.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What school did she first attend?
MRS. HALSTEAD: First attend?
MR. HUNNICUTT: Yes.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Where did Leah go to school?
MR. HUNNICUTT: You were still living in the brick apartments?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I don’t know—No, we were living out on North Seneca.
MR. HUNNICUTT: That would probably be --
MRS. HALSTEAD: On the way west end of town.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Maybe Willowbrook there at Robertsville?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I don’t know. I’m sorry, I don’t know. I know she went to Oak Ridge. That’s the only thing I can remember.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now, when you dressed your daughter, did you have other children besides the one daughter?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I had three girls and a boy.
MR. HUNNICUTT: All born in Oak Ridge?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: When your children went to the Oak Ridge school system, do you recall the dress that they, how they dressed versus how you dressed when you went through the school system?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I don’t, however everybody they all dressed alike. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did they walk to school, or did they ride the buses?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Rode the bus. We had good bus service, but we were living on Wakefield. We had to either walk out to Outer, West Outer, because it didn’t circle around where we were, to catch the bus.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now, when you lived on North Seneca, was all your children born, and did they live on North Seneca as well?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yeah.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What type of house was that?
MRS. HALSTEAD: It was a new home, and they were just being built, you know. It was a nice place. It had three bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, living room. It was a nice home.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you think the Oak Ridge school system was a better school system for you when you came versus from when you attended school in Cleveland?
MRS. HALSTEAD: It was different. It was just different. I don’t think we got as much one-on-one in Oak Ridge teaching as we did at a small school in Cleveland, but I think we learned more. I think when you’re --
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, you were talking about the Oak Ridge school system and how you thought you learned a little more in Oak Ridge than you did.
MRS. HALSTEAD: I did. Well, they offered more here, things like Latin and things like that you would never have gotten in a small grammar school in Cleveland, Tennessee, but I was in high school there. If I had been in Cleveland, I would have had to gone out to Bradley High School, which means I would have had to make a way out there somewhere.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall your children when they went through the Oak Ridge school system, did they like to go to school, or did you have any problems getting them to go to school?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, I insisted my children learn three things: how to drive a car, how to swim, and how to pay attention when people talk to them.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Talking about swimming, you mentioned you went to the big --
MRS. HALSTEAD: Oh, yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: -- outdoor swimming pool.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Couldn’t swim a lick, you understand.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Where was that located?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Right there where it is now.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Here in the Grove Center area?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum...cold, it’s spring fed. I think it still is.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Yes, it is.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Cold.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did your children also go to the swimming pool?
MRS. HALSTEAD: They are all swimmers, really good swimmers. I insisted they learn to swim. That was one of those things I said you got to do.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall who taught them how to swim?
MRS. HALSTEAD: It was somebody there at the pool because there were lessons every morning for people who did not know how to swim, but, no, I don’t know.
MR. HUNNICUTT: I know as a mom and a working mom, did you work while your children was growing up?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, I worked when I came to Oak Ridge, yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Once you got married you stopped working?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I had to start working. I started working here in Oak Ridge, and when I got married I still was working, but when I began having my children.…
MR. HUNNICUTT: You was a stay at home mom then?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, during your family life with your children and your husband, what did you guys do for fun?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Well, we played a lot of cards. The kids still play a lot of cards when they come home at Christmas time. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: What kind of card games did you play?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Lordy mercy, what did we play? Nothing that made any sense, things like “War”, things they could really get into. I don’t know what they play now. I’m sorry, as much as they come home, but they don’t get home very often, but they head straight for that table to play.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Rummy seemed to be a favorite game that was played over the years. Do you recall?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I’m sorry.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Rummy was a favorite game to be played over the years.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Probably.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did they go skating and bowling and things of that nature?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Oh yeah, yeah.
MR. HUNNICUTT: They were very active children?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: By the way, we didn’t mention their names. Give me the names of your children.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Leah, Elaine, Eve, and Russell.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about shopping? Where did you do your shopping?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Mother worked at Conley E Morris, so I got a lot of deals there that I would have never been able to afford. Do you remember?
MR. HUNNICUTT: That was a ladies store that was there?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh, and right next to it was little Kimball’s.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Jewelry store?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh, and now that’s where I got a lot of -- I made clothes, and I could sew.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about grocery shopping. Do you recall where you did most of your grocery shopping?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Oh, that was a sport. You go down—we’d have to walk down to Hilltop and get the groceries, but then you had to catch a bus to come home because you couldn’t, you had groceries, you know, so.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now when you lived on North Seneca and was raising your—Let me back up. I have it mixed up too. When you were living in the brick apartments, then you moved to North Seneca, and that’s where your family grew up?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Your two daughters and your son?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, when you lived there, do you recall where you did most of your grocery shopping?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, I don’t. I don’t. There wasn’t anything close there as far as grocery stores went.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you, you had a car then?
MRS. HALSTEAD: We must have because I couldn’t have taken a car—We must have had a car, but I don’t—Yes, Lee had a black Mercury, yes. I remember polishing that sucker all the time.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now did your children attend the high school when it was in Jackson Square, or where it is today?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Up on the hill there.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Your children did?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I presume. I didn’t know it had been anywhere else. Has it been anywhere else?
MR. HUNNICUTT: I asked you earlier about when you were growing up how did your mother wash clothes. How did you wash your clothes and dry them when you were raising your family?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I did a lot of sewing. I taught my girls to sew, and my grandmother always gave them velvet dresses at Christmas, my father’s mother, so we made out. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: Let’s talk a little bit about the hospital when you worked at the hospital. Do you think Oak Ridge Hospital had a good medical staff and the people here got good medical care?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes. I think, I think we had the best cause the Army sent what we had in here. I really do think that we had some of the best surgeons around. They came from everywhere.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you remember some of the names of the surgeons?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Dana Nance, Bob Bigalow, let’s see Dr. King was the urologist. I ought to be able to remember. Betty Cooper was, Dr. Betty Cooper. It will all come to me later, but I can remember that many.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall the doctor you took your children to?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Family Clin.…let’s see.…Children’s Clinic was what it was called back then.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Dr. Preston, Dr. Thomas?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes, yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Anyone that ever lived in Oak Ridge and raised children --
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: -- went to that particular clinic.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How about dental offices? Do you remember dental offices? Did they have dental service in Oak Ridge?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes, they had dental services, but I tell you for this life of me I don’t remember where or who. Thank goodness we all had good teeth. I don’t remember.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, if, compare Oak Ridge’s health care versus if you lived in Cleveland and grew up?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Oh, much better, much better because we had so many specialists, and the Army pulled in a lot of really good doctors with them.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, you’ve lived here all these years. What do you like best about Oak Ridge?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I think I like best, I don’t feel crowded. We do not feel—I don’t ever feel crowded here. There is a lot of open space in Oak Ridge. We’re not jammed together. Even now we’re not jammed together.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Back in the early days when you were growing up, did you feel safe?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes, with the Army, yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Even after that, after the Army left, did you still have that same feeling, safe?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yeah.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did people lock their doors back in those days?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I still don’t lock my door.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you think Oak Ridge has progressed over the years?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I guess. It must have. It must have progressed, but I can’t answer that because I can’t—I’m not thinking along those lines. That doesn’t even enter my mind. I seldom go anyplace else to get what I need. I’ll put it that way.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Let’s back up a minute. I don’t think you told me, or I asked you, what your husband’s name was.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Everett Lee.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And tell me a little bit about how he got to Oak Ridge. Do you recall?
MRS. HALSTEAD: He was here. I don’t know how he got here. Everett Lee was wild as a March hare, if you’ll pardon the expression. He was a paratrooper. He made something like 32 jumps needed to stick. There wasn’t anything he wasn’t willing to tackle, so, he was a redhead.
MR. HUNNICUTT: But he was an engineer by profession?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Mechanical engineer. He was an archer, a champion archer. He got a lot of trophies back there.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did he retire from the K-25 plant?
MRS. HALSTEAD: (Nods head.)
MR. HUNNICUTT: As an engineer?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And what did you guys do after his retirement when your children was all gone away from the house?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Probably breathed a sigh of relief. (Laughter) Sorry about that. Well, we traveled. We took something like 13 cruises. Anytime we could jump a boat we’d go to the boat because we loved to cruise, so we went to a lot of places we would never had had the chance to have gone before. We visited relatives.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Cruising is a fun thing to do. They treat you like a king and queen.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes, yes, and if you like to dance and you like, you know, it’s just, it was a nice experience. Scamper, will you please get settled?
MR. HUNNICUTT: After your children left home, did you get involved in anything outside the home?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Church.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What church was that?
MRS. HALSTEAD: St. Steven’s Episcopal Church. My father was the organist there.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How long was he an organist at the church?
MRS. HALSTEAD: My father was the organist. I don’t know how long he was the organist. He’s been gone a long time. I’ve sung in the choir forever there and still do.
MR. HUNNICUTT: When was your husband deceased?
MRS. HALSTEAD: When did Lee die? It’s been a while.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Where does your children live today?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I have one in Texas, Elaine, one in Connecticut, my son Russell, one in Georgia, and one here.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do they have—Do you have grandchildren?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I knew you was going to ask me. Yes, granddaughters. That’s all I’ve got. (Laughter) We are top heavy with women in this family.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Well, granddaughters is ok.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: You love them and dress them.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Oh, yeah.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you see them very often?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, but we do meet at Christmas or some time. You know, there are special times in the year we all get together and make an effort to get together.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Is there anything you can think of that we haven’t talked about that you would like to talk about Oak Ridge and living here?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Not until after you leave. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: Well, it’s been a pleasure to interview you, and I believe your oral history will be a tribute to the history of Oak Ridge, and I thank you very much.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Thank you.
[End of Interview]

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ORAL HISTORY OF MARY ANN HALSTEAD
Interviewed by Don Hunnicutt
Filmed by BBB Communications, LLC.
October 25, 2012
MR. HUNNICUTT: This interview has been scheduled through the Center of Oak Ridge Oral History. The date is October 25, 2012. I am Don Hunnicutt in the home of Mrs. Mary Ann Halstead, 131 Indian Lane, Oak Ridge, Tennessee. May I call you Mary Ann?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Please state your full name, your place of birth, and the date of your birth.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Mary Ann Wood Halstead. I was born December 30, 1931, in Cleveland, Tennessee.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Would you recall your father’s name and his birth place.
MRS. HALSTEAD: John Wood was his father—my father’s name. Oh God, he’s been dead a while. I don’t know.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall where he was born?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Cleveland.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Cleveland, Tennessee.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How about your mother’s name, maiden name, and where was she born?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Her maiden name, she was Ruby Louise Clemmons, and she was born in the same place.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Ok. Do you recall how they met?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes, my father worked the Hardwick Woolen Mills in Cleveland, and evidently Mother was a secretary.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, your father worked at a wind mill?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Woolen.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Woolen Mill.
MRS. HALSTEAD: A very famous Woolen Mill, even now.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall the name of that?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Hardwick.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Hardwick. How about your mother? Did she work?
MRS. HALSTEAD: In the office.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, they met there and later got married?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you have any brothers and sisters?
MRS. HALSTEAD: One sister.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And her name?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Joan.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about your father? Do you know or recall anything about his school history?
MRS. HALSTEAD: His what history?
MR. HUNNICUTT: School history. What schools he might have went. Did he graduate from high school? Do you recall?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I’m sure he graduated from high school. He was an excellent musician. He had his own bandstand. He played the organ at the church.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How about your mother? Do you recall her school history?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Just a little petite thing is all I can remember. (Laughter) She was about maybe 15 or 14 years older than me, you know. She and I were close and very close because she was so young.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did your father work at the—do you recall how long he worked at the woolen mill?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, but it was during the Depression in 1931. Of course, the middle of the Depression, wasn’t it? Somewhere in there. My mother’s sister lived close to her in Cleveland, and she and her husband moved up here to Oak Ridge, and her husband called my father and said, “You need to come because the jobs are good, and the money is excellent”, and he did.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How old were you when you came with your family to Oak Ridge?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I came out of the seventh grade in Cleveland, so you could figure young teen, I guess, up to the eighth grade.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, what type of job did your father have when he came to Oak Ridge?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Oh Lord. He worked somewhere down here at the plant, but he also played the organ at the Mayflower, and he played the organ at the church.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall where you first lived when you came to Oak Ridge?
MRS. HALSTEAD: On Wakefield Road.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What type of house was that?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Well, I guess, we had family in front and family in back, whatever you want to call that. A duplex, I guess. Is that what they were called?
MR. HUNNICUTT: A TDU duplex?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Describe how the house inside looked like. Do you recall how it looked, how many bedrooms it had?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Two.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you share a bedroom with--
MRS. HALSTEAD: With my sister.
MR. HUNNICUTT: -- your sister?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Who was 11 years younger, which didn’t work out just really well. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: What was some of the problems that you two had?
MRS. HALSTEAD: She just wanted to get into my stuff.
MR. HUNNICUTT: I understand. So, you started the eighth grade in the Oak Ridge school system?
MRS. HALSTEAD: At Highland View, and I walked, of course. There is an excellent bus schedule here, but I walked up to Highland View. From Wakefield Road to Highland View School is not very far, but they roofed that school over our head when we were in there as we were in there as students, so it was just going up.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, the school was in the process--
MRS. HALSTEAD: Of being built.
MR. HUNNICUTT: -- of being built while you attended. Do you remember some of your teachers’ names?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you like school?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What was the difference, that you can recall, between going to Highland View School than the school you attended in Cleveland through the seventh grade?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Well, it was exciting. I mean, how exciting can it be to have a school built around you while you’re in there? (Laughter) I do remember this, that even coming, even only being 10-years-old I had to wear a badge. Everybody that came into this city wore a badge, and it was full of military—soldiers everywhere. I always told everybody my mother put me on a short leash. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you have a lot of kids in your school class as well?
MRS. HALSTEAD: There wasn’t a lot of us, I don’t think. I don’t remember it being crowded.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about lunchtime? Did you take a lunch to school with you?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I did.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall some of the subjects you took in school?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, whatever we had. There was no choice when you were in grammar school. You had, you took what they had you take.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Reading, writing, and arithmetic?
MRS. HALSTEAD: That’s exactly.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What was the dress code? What kind of clothes did you wear when you went to school?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Skirts and sweaters, I think, just like everybody else.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Was that the same dress you had when you lived in Cleveland?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, when your parents came to Oak Ridge, how did they get here? By car?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, they didn’t have a car. I’d have to think about that.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Ok. Maybe it will come to you later on. So, your mother, father, you, and your sister, is that the total number in the family that came to Oak Ridge?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did your mother ever work while she was here in Oak Ridge?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes, she worked at Conley E. Morris at the dress shop.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Where was that located?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Down here in Oak Ridge at the shopping mall. There was Conley E Morris, and then there was Kimball’s Jewelers, and the whole thing has changed now.
MR. HUNNICUTT: That’s the Downtown shopping area that they used to have?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall in your first home that you lived in what type of heat you had in the home? Do you recall whether it was coal heat?
MRS. HALSTEAD: It was, yes, it was the big old furnace, I guess it was, sitting in the living room, potbellied stove is what it was, and it was coal. There was a coal bin outside, and we carried the coal, and in the summer, Mother made Daddy dismantle that thing and take it out of the house so she had more room in the living room. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, you and your sister shared a bedroom.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall what your—how your mother washed your clothes? Did she have a --
MRS. HALSTEAD: She had a ringer washer, you know.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And I suspect she hung the clothes outside on the clothes line?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall neighbors talking to each other at the clothes line in those days?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yeah, oh yeah.
MR. HUNNICUTT: That was the point of conversation?
MRS. HALSTEAD: It was. Yes, it was.
MR. HUNNICUTT: When you went from Highland View School, what was the next school you attended?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Jefferson Junior High, which is Robertsville now—right down here.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Jefferson Junior High was located where Robertsville Junior High School is today?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh, uh-huh.
MR. HUNNICUTT: On Robertsville Road?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What do you remember about that school? Was it old, new?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Oh, yeah, it was fairly new. I don’t remember a whole lot about junior high. I was just there two years because then I went to high school.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And where was the high school at that time?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Up at Jackson Square up on the hill.
MR. HUNNICUTT: On the hill. So, when you went to the high school---let’s back up a minute. When you went to junior high at Jefferson, did you walk to school?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about lunches? Did you take your lunch to school with you?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yeah.
MR. HUNNICUTT: You eat in the cafeteria?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, I took my lunch.
MR. HUNNICUTT: The dress code, I guess, was the same --
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yep.
MR. HUNNICUTT: -- as before? When you were in high school, do you recall what classes you took, any special classes?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I was in the band.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What instrument did you play?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Bell lyre, bells, lyre—L-Y-R-E, and my father wrote the marching song for the Oak Ridge High School, and they still use it.
MR. HUNNICUTT: That’s good.
MRS. HALSTEAD: And he played the organ at the Mayflower Grill.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you remember your music teacher in the high school?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Scarborough, Prof. Scarborough.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about activities, clubs, or things of that nature? Did you belong to any clubs during the high school days?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, I don’t think so.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you attend --
MRS. HALSTEAD: Your life revolved around the bus schedule. They only ran so far and so long, and at certain times, and you had to get out of school and get down the steps and get to where your bus was.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, you rode the bus back and forth to --
MRS. HALSTEAD: Oh, yeah.
MR. HUNNICUTT: -- when you went to high school?
MRS. HALSTEAD: We didn’t have a car.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How did your dad get to work if you didn’t have a car?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Well, he had a car pool. He rode with someone.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Recalling the type of people who were here in those days, what kind of people—can you describe what kind of people they were, I mean?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Army, all of them in khaki. It seems like a mass of khaki, but they were from everywhere, north, south, east, and west.
MR. HUNNICUTT: It seems like everybody blended in?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes. Yes, the people on the top next to us on the left, I don’t know where they came from. The gentleman down below us, on the right, had a Model-T Ford he had to crank, but he had the only car in the whole neighborhood. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: And were you still living on Wakefield?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: In the same house?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What kind of fun activities did you do in the summer time after school was out?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, I came home.
MR. HUNNICUTT: No, I mean after school was out in the summer.
MRS. HALSTEAD: In the summer?
MR. HUNNICUTT: Yes.
MRS. HALSTEAD: I guess I went down to the big old swimming pool down here, although I never did learn to swim. Roller skating, my mother and I both roller skated.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Where was the roller rink located?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Right down here at Jefferson. My mother and father won a lot of trophies roller skating.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What do you remember about the roller rink? Describe what you remember.
MRS. HALSTEAD: I loved it. This one down here, I wish we still had it. It had that wooden, wonderful wooden floor, and it was just a good place to be because you had a lot of people watching over you, and it was just a—no roughness going on or anything.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you know how to skate before you ever went roller skating?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I learned how to skate in Cleveland, but I learned how to walk the corners and things like that down here. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: What is walking the corners?
MRS. HALSTEAD: When you go around a corner you don’t just skoosh, skoosh, skoosh. You go one foot over the other.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So you spent a lot of time at the roller rink?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Whenever my momma would let me, yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Was your momma strict on you?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes. She kept me on a very short leash. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about dances, did you attend any dances that—they had dances throughout the city, I think, in those times.
MRS. HALSTEAD: No.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you ever play any sports?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How about playgrounds, did you visit the playgrounds?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes, there is a playground in every area, you know. The Army set it up that way. There’s a playground right behind me.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Each school had a playground, if I remember right?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes, and I had a sister, you have to remember, 13 years younger. I did a lot of babysitting.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you have any special girl friends that you kind of hung out with?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yeah, I did.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What kind of activities did you remember doing?
MRS. HALSTEAD: We didn’t get to see each other very much because none of us had the transportation. We saw each other in high school, but no, we didn’t get to see each other very much. Besides that, I had to iron the baby’s diapers and all that sort of thing. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: Big sister work?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh, big sister work.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you remember the boardwalks around the town?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Kind of describe what the boardwalks looked like.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Well, the ones I had to, the one I went to from Wakefield you had to go down into the gully and then get onto it and go down to Hillside, and the roads were just—they hadn’t been paved or anything. I lost a galoshe in the road going up to school at Highland View that I never found. I guess it’s still up there somewhere. I don’t know. (Laughter) It sucked it right off my foot.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, there as a lot of mud throughout the city?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Oh, Lordy was there ever.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about the weather? Do you remember was it harsh winter or snows, or do you recall how the weather was in those days?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, I don’t remember. As a teenager I don’t think the weather even entered into my mind.
MR. HUNNICUTT: When your mother went shopping, how did she go shopping? How did she get there?
MRS. HALSTEAD: She had to bum a ride, or she had to take a bus.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you go shopping with her?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, I stayed home and watched my baby sister.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall where she might have did all of her grocery shopping?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, I guess probably as close to home as she could get, probably up at Hilltop and places like that.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall going any place with your mother shopping anywhere and standing in line?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, but they used to be lines for something, but I don’t remember what it was.
MR. HUNNICUTT: I’ve been told there were lines for anything that you wanted.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Stocking, for one thing, you know I think, but no, I don’t really because, like I said, I ended up doing the house work and babysitting, and I didn’t do just a whole lot of that.
MR. HUNNICUTT: When you were going to high school, of course Jackson Square at that time --
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: -- was the main shopping area.
MRS. HALSTEAD: You walked up those big steps.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Were the steps, when you were going to the high school, made out of wood, or do you recall?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes, yes, but they are concrete now, but yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you remember any times that you stopped at any stores in Jackson Square during the time you were in high school?
MRS. HALSTEAD: We always stopped at that, what was a, drug store. I don’t know what it is now. I don’t know whether it still is or not.
MR. HUNNICUTT: That was William’s Drug Store?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yep. We got a bite, like a cookie and something like that to last me through the day.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you get off the bus down in front of the post office and have to walk up --
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh.
MR. HUNNICUTT: -- the hill?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And that’s where you caught the bus.
MRS. HALSTEAD: At the post—yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall what color the school buses were?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Nope.
MR. HUNNICUTT: They used to be red for many years. I didn’t know whether that was the color.
MRS. HALSTEAD: (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, if your mom or dad needed to go somewhere in the city they had to ask, get a ride from someone, or use the bus?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Catch the bus, um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did your ride the buses?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Other than going to school? Did you do any bus riding throughout the city other than going to school?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I’d have to think about that. I don’t know where I’d be going or what I would be going for. Mostly I walked.
MR. HUNNICUTT: You were referring to badges.
MRS. HALSTEAD: I had a badge, yes, at 10-years-old.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And your picture was on the badge and your name? Did you have a number as well?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I’m sure I did, but I don’t know what it was.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, what was the reason you had to have a badge? Do you recall?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Everybody that came in through those gates, we were the city behind the fence, if you will remember, had to have a badge. It didn’t matter how old they were.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, if you got up in the morning and just going outside to play, did you have to wear the badge?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, I didn’t.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Were you supposed to?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, I don’t reckon. I mean, I was right there at my house, you know.
MR. HUNNICUTT: But if you went to school, did you wear your badge?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, I probably didn’t wear my badge very much at all except if I was going Downtown or somewhere. I don’t think they ever stopped you very much to see. Coming in and out is when they got, you know, out the gates is when they got you.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you have anyone from your family outside of Oak Ridge come and visit you that you remember?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes, my grandmother.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did she have to have a pass to get in, in those days?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Probably. I don’t remember that. I just remember she came and brought me Easter presents and Christmas presents.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Talking about the gates, there were gates around the city to keep the people out they didn’t want in.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall traveling in and out of the gates at any time?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Any time that you went anywhere that you traveled you had to go in and out of the gates, but I didn’t travel much because we didn’t have a car, you know.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What did you do after you graduated from high school?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Went into nurses training.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And where was that?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Baptist Hospital in Knoxville.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How did you get over to Baptist and back?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Over Greyhound bus.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How long was your nurse's training?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Three years.
MR. HUNNICUTT: After you graduated from nurses training, what did you do then?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Came back to Oak Ridge and worked in the operating room here at the hospital.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall what year that was?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Oh, Lord, no, I don’t.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Was that your first job at the hospital in the operating room?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I loved it. That’s the only place I ever worked.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How long did you work with the hospital?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Oh, goodness, I worked, I don’t know—I was dating, I got married. I guess I got married to my husband, and I was still working, which drove him nuts because he never knew when I was going to get called out. I worked until Dr. Dana Nance told me that I couldn’t work anymore because I had got, I was pregnant, but then he said, “You’re so big you can’t get close enough to the table to hand the instruments. You’re going to have to retire.” I quit.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Let me back up a minute and ask you another question. Do you remember when the news was announced about the dropping of the bomb on Japan?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Where were you when that happened? Do you recall?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, but I recall there was quite a bit of panic. There was a lot of people wanting out of here.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Why do you think that was the case?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I don’t know. I think they thought if—they didn’t know what we were doing here until then. They had no idea we were building an atomic bomb, you know. I think they panicked and said, “Oh, my God, let’s get away from here.”
MR. HUNNICUTT: Then later on, do you remember opening the gates to the city?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes. I marched in that parade.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Tell me a little bit about the events of the parade.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Hot, oh, it was so hot. I was carrying the bell lyre. Do you know what I’m talking about? A huge, big instrument, marching down through there, Rod Cameron on his horse in front of us, leaving great piles here and there. The band couldn’t keep a straight line. There was no way you could keep a straight line. If you just didn’t step in it you were lucky. It was interesting. I’ll just put it that way.
MR. HUNNICUTT: This was the Oak Ridge High School band?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh.
MR. HUNNICUTT: That was a pretty good long march from where the Civic Center is today --
MRS. HALSTEAD: It surely was.
MR. HUNNICUTT: -- through Jackson Square.
MRS. HALSTEAD: And it was hotter than the hinges on the gate. I’m telling you.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, Rod Cameron, he was a western movie star?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh, and I can’t remember who the woman was. It was another pretty big star.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Marie McDonald?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: They used to call her Marie “the Body” McDonald.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yeah, uh-huh.
MR. HUNNICUTT: There was other movie stars here as well, Adolph Menjou. Do you remember him?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And Lee Bowman --
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh.
MR. HUNNICUTT: -- rode in cars.
MRS. HALSTEAD: I was just interested in getting down the street.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now, did the Oak Ridge High School band also go to Elza Gate at the official gate opening?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you march all the way out there?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, no, no we went by bus.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And then you were taken back down to the starting point of the parade by bus?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yeah, there was too many big instruments to be trying to walk it.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you see the ribbon cutting or explosion at the gate opening ceremony?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What did you think about that?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I thought it was pretty dramatic.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Quite a few people there?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you stay long enough to witness the gate opening and the cars and the people outside waiting to come through?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No.
MR. HUNNICUTT: After you marched in the parade, what did you do then?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Went home.
MR. HUNNICUTT: You didn’t attend any other events throughout the city?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, no I didn’t.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Let’s talk about dating a little bit when you were in high school, and your mother had a close rein on you, how did you meet—well, your first date for example—where did you go?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Movies, to the movies.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Indoor theater?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And other places? Where else did you go on your dates?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Well, he didn’t have a car, and I didn’t have a car. We didn’t go very far.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you ride the bus there?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Just meet and ride the bus?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Was the movie theaters—Where were they located that you attended?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I don’t know. I thought they were at Grove Center, and there was one where the Playhouse is now.
MR. HUNNICUTT: The Center Theater in Jackson Square?
MRS. HALSTEAD: There was one where Big Ed’s is down there.
MR. HUNNICUTT: The Ridge Theater, and there was a Jefferson Theater down at Jefferson as well?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yeah.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, you met your husband. How did you meet your husband?
MRS. HALSTEAD: A blind date.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Blind date. Were you out of high school when you met him?
MRS. HALSTEAD: It wasn’t exactly a blind date. I’ll back up a minute. I was working as head nurse on the floor, the surgical floor. He was visiting friends down the hallway and looked up and saw me sitting at the desk and sent one of the girls up there to ask if I would come back there and talk to them, and he asked me for a date.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, what did your husband do at the time?
MRS. HALSTEAD: He was an engineer.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And he just happened to be in the hospital and saw you at that time?
MRS. HALSTEAD: He was visiting a friend.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, what are some of the places and things that you did when you dated your husband or future husband?
MRS. HALSTEAD: We went wherever we could, but you have to remember that if you’re on call—I would be sitting in a theater, and across the bottom of the screen it would say, “Ms. Halstead, please come back to surgery.” We’d have to get up and go leave, so.
MR. HUNNICUTT: That’s an interesting fact. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that before.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yeah, that’s exactly what happened, but you can’t just stay home when you’re on call because we took a lot of calls, and so I just got bucked up and went back to surgery.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, when were you married, the date and the place?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Oh, Lordy. He’s been gone a while. We were married in Rossville, Georgia. We went off with a couple of our friends and got married because we didn’t either one have enough money to have any kind of a wedding, so we just eloped and went off and got married.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Where was your first house you lived in?
MRS. HALSTEAD: That my husband and I lived in?
MR. HUNNICUTT: Yes.
MRS. HALSTEAD: We lived over in those brick apartments.
MR. HUNNICUTT: In the Woodland area?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh, right in there.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How long did you live in those?
MRS. HALSTEAD: You are spraining my brain. We moved from there out to West Village. I don’t know. I can’t remember.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Ok. Well, kind of describe the brick apartment that you lived in inside. What was it like?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Noisy. (Laughter) There was a lot of people in those brick apartments from everywhere. We had our first child there. We were on the ground floor, which was lucky. I didn’t have to climb the steps, and it was close within walking distance of, of course, one of the shopping centers was right there. My husband did have a car.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, the Downtown shopping center was there when you --
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh.
MR. HUNNICUTT: -- lived there, so they built that in 1955, so. What type work did your husband do?
MRS. HALSTEAD: He was a mechanical engineer at the plant.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall which plant he worked at?
MRS. HALSTEAD: K-25.
MR. HUNNICUTT: When you were growing up and Oak Ridge was a secret, did you recall anyone telling about what was going on here or what they did until they dropped the bomb --
MRS. HALSTEAD: No.
MR. HUNNICUTT: -- and the news came out?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Absolutely not.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did anybody ask questions about what was going on? Do you recall?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, but then at my age they wouldn’t be talking to a 13-year-old about that anyway, or 14-year-old.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Tell me about your first child. What was, was it a he or she?
MRS. HALSTEAD: She. She just called me from France this morning.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And she was born in Oak Ridge Hospital?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall the date?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, I’d have to go get her baby book. I do not recall the date. I just remember that—no, I don’t remember much about it.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What school did she first attend?
MRS. HALSTEAD: First attend?
MR. HUNNICUTT: Yes.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Where did Leah go to school?
MR. HUNNICUTT: You were still living in the brick apartments?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I don’t know—No, we were living out on North Seneca.
MR. HUNNICUTT: That would probably be --
MRS. HALSTEAD: On the way west end of town.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Maybe Willowbrook there at Robertsville?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I don’t know. I’m sorry, I don’t know. I know she went to Oak Ridge. That’s the only thing I can remember.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now, when you dressed your daughter, did you have other children besides the one daughter?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I had three girls and a boy.
MR. HUNNICUTT: All born in Oak Ridge?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: When your children went to the Oak Ridge school system, do you recall the dress that they, how they dressed versus how you dressed when you went through the school system?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I don’t, however everybody they all dressed alike. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did they walk to school, or did they ride the buses?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Rode the bus. We had good bus service, but we were living on Wakefield. We had to either walk out to Outer, West Outer, because it didn’t circle around where we were, to catch the bus.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now, when you lived on North Seneca, was all your children born, and did they live on North Seneca as well?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yeah.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What type of house was that?
MRS. HALSTEAD: It was a new home, and they were just being built, you know. It was a nice place. It had three bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, living room. It was a nice home.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you think the Oak Ridge school system was a better school system for you when you came versus from when you attended school in Cleveland?
MRS. HALSTEAD: It was different. It was just different. I don’t think we got as much one-on-one in Oak Ridge teaching as we did at a small school in Cleveland, but I think we learned more. I think when you’re --
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, you were talking about the Oak Ridge school system and how you thought you learned a little more in Oak Ridge than you did.
MRS. HALSTEAD: I did. Well, they offered more here, things like Latin and things like that you would never have gotten in a small grammar school in Cleveland, Tennessee, but I was in high school there. If I had been in Cleveland, I would have had to gone out to Bradley High School, which means I would have had to make a way out there somewhere.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall your children when they went through the Oak Ridge school system, did they like to go to school, or did you have any problems getting them to go to school?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, I insisted my children learn three things: how to drive a car, how to swim, and how to pay attention when people talk to them.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Talking about swimming, you mentioned you went to the big --
MRS. HALSTEAD: Oh, yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: -- outdoor swimming pool.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Couldn’t swim a lick, you understand.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Where was that located?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Right there where it is now.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Here in the Grove Center area?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum...cold, it’s spring fed. I think it still is.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Yes, it is.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Cold.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did your children also go to the swimming pool?
MRS. HALSTEAD: They are all swimmers, really good swimmers. I insisted they learn to swim. That was one of those things I said you got to do.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall who taught them how to swim?
MRS. HALSTEAD: It was somebody there at the pool because there were lessons every morning for people who did not know how to swim, but, no, I don’t know.
MR. HUNNICUTT: I know as a mom and a working mom, did you work while your children was growing up?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, I worked when I came to Oak Ridge, yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Once you got married you stopped working?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I had to start working. I started working here in Oak Ridge, and when I got married I still was working, but when I began having my children.…
MR. HUNNICUTT: You was a stay at home mom then?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, during your family life with your children and your husband, what did you guys do for fun?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Well, we played a lot of cards. The kids still play a lot of cards when they come home at Christmas time. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: What kind of card games did you play?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Lordy mercy, what did we play? Nothing that made any sense, things like “War”, things they could really get into. I don’t know what they play now. I’m sorry, as much as they come home, but they don’t get home very often, but they head straight for that table to play.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Rummy seemed to be a favorite game that was played over the years. Do you recall?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I’m sorry.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Rummy was a favorite game to be played over the years.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Probably.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did they go skating and bowling and things of that nature?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Oh yeah, yeah.
MR. HUNNICUTT: They were very active children?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: By the way, we didn’t mention their names. Give me the names of your children.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Leah, Elaine, Eve, and Russell.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about shopping? Where did you do your shopping?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Mother worked at Conley E Morris, so I got a lot of deals there that I would have never been able to afford. Do you remember?
MR. HUNNICUTT: That was a ladies store that was there?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh, and right next to it was little Kimball’s.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Jewelry store?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Uh-huh, and now that’s where I got a lot of -- I made clothes, and I could sew.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What about grocery shopping. Do you recall where you did most of your grocery shopping?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Oh, that was a sport. You go down—we’d have to walk down to Hilltop and get the groceries, but then you had to catch a bus to come home because you couldn’t, you had groceries, you know, so.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now when you lived on North Seneca and was raising your—Let me back up. I have it mixed up too. When you were living in the brick apartments, then you moved to North Seneca, and that’s where your family grew up?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Your two daughters and your son?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, when you lived there, do you recall where you did most of your grocery shopping?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, I don’t. I don’t. There wasn’t anything close there as far as grocery stores went.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did you, you had a car then?
MRS. HALSTEAD: We must have because I couldn’t have taken a car—We must have had a car, but I don’t—Yes, Lee had a black Mercury, yes. I remember polishing that sucker all the time.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Now did your children attend the high school when it was in Jackson Square, or where it is today?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Up on the hill there.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Your children did?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I presume. I didn’t know it had been anywhere else. Has it been anywhere else?
MR. HUNNICUTT: I asked you earlier about when you were growing up how did your mother wash clothes. How did you wash your clothes and dry them when you were raising your family?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I did a lot of sewing. I taught my girls to sew, and my grandmother always gave them velvet dresses at Christmas, my father’s mother, so we made out. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: Let’s talk a little bit about the hospital when you worked at the hospital. Do you think Oak Ridge Hospital had a good medical staff and the people here got good medical care?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes. I think, I think we had the best cause the Army sent what we had in here. I really do think that we had some of the best surgeons around. They came from everywhere.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you remember some of the names of the surgeons?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Dana Nance, Bob Bigalow, let’s see Dr. King was the urologist. I ought to be able to remember. Betty Cooper was, Dr. Betty Cooper. It will all come to me later, but I can remember that many.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you recall the doctor you took your children to?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Family Clin.…let’s see.…Children’s Clinic was what it was called back then.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Dr. Preston, Dr. Thomas?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes, yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Anyone that ever lived in Oak Ridge and raised children --
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: -- went to that particular clinic.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How about dental offices? Do you remember dental offices? Did they have dental service in Oak Ridge?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes, they had dental services, but I tell you for this life of me I don’t remember where or who. Thank goodness we all had good teeth. I don’t remember.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, if, compare Oak Ridge’s health care versus if you lived in Cleveland and grew up?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Oh, much better, much better because we had so many specialists, and the Army pulled in a lot of really good doctors with them.
MR. HUNNICUTT: So, you’ve lived here all these years. What do you like best about Oak Ridge?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I think I like best, I don’t feel crowded. We do not feel—I don’t ever feel crowded here. There is a lot of open space in Oak Ridge. We’re not jammed together. Even now we’re not jammed together.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Back in the early days when you were growing up, did you feel safe?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes, with the Army, yes.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Even after that, after the Army left, did you still have that same feeling, safe?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yeah.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did people lock their doors back in those days?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I still don’t lock my door.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you think Oak Ridge has progressed over the years?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I guess. It must have. It must have progressed, but I can’t answer that because I can’t—I’m not thinking along those lines. That doesn’t even enter my mind. I seldom go anyplace else to get what I need. I’ll put it that way.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Let’s back up a minute. I don’t think you told me, or I asked you, what your husband’s name was.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Everett Lee.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And tell me a little bit about how he got to Oak Ridge. Do you recall?
MRS. HALSTEAD: He was here. I don’t know how he got here. Everett Lee was wild as a March hare, if you’ll pardon the expression. He was a paratrooper. He made something like 32 jumps needed to stick. There wasn’t anything he wasn’t willing to tackle, so, he was a redhead.
MR. HUNNICUTT: But he was an engineer by profession?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Mechanical engineer. He was an archer, a champion archer. He got a lot of trophies back there.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Did he retire from the K-25 plant?
MRS. HALSTEAD: (Nods head.)
MR. HUNNICUTT: As an engineer?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: And what did you guys do after his retirement when your children was all gone away from the house?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Probably breathed a sigh of relief. (Laughter) Sorry about that. Well, we traveled. We took something like 13 cruises. Anytime we could jump a boat we’d go to the boat because we loved to cruise, so we went to a lot of places we would never had had the chance to have gone before. We visited relatives.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Cruising is a fun thing to do. They treat you like a king and queen.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Yes, yes, and if you like to dance and you like, you know, it’s just, it was a nice experience. Scamper, will you please get settled?
MR. HUNNICUTT: After your children left home, did you get involved in anything outside the home?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Church.
MR. HUNNICUTT: What church was that?
MRS. HALSTEAD: St. Steven’s Episcopal Church. My father was the organist there.
MR. HUNNICUTT: How long was he an organist at the church?
MRS. HALSTEAD: My father was the organist. I don’t know how long he was the organist. He’s been gone a long time. I’ve sung in the choir forever there and still do.
MR. HUNNICUTT: When was your husband deceased?
MRS. HALSTEAD: When did Lee die? It’s been a while.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Where does your children live today?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I have one in Texas, Elaine, one in Connecticut, my son Russell, one in Georgia, and one here.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do they have—Do you have grandchildren?
MRS. HALSTEAD: I knew you was going to ask me. Yes, granddaughters. That’s all I’ve got. (Laughter) We are top heavy with women in this family.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Well, granddaughters is ok.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Um-hum.
MR. HUNNICUTT: You love them and dress them.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Oh, yeah.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Do you see them very often?
MRS. HALSTEAD: No, but we do meet at Christmas or some time. You know, there are special times in the year we all get together and make an effort to get together.
MR. HUNNICUTT: Is there anything you can think of that we haven’t talked about that you would like to talk about Oak Ridge and living here?
MRS. HALSTEAD: Not until after you leave. (Laughter)
MR. HUNNICUTT: Well, it’s been a pleasure to interview you, and I believe your oral history will be a tribute to the history of Oak Ridge, and I thank you very much.
MRS. HALSTEAD: Thank you.
[End of Interview]